


The Empress

by hakugin_yami (Luci_fer)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Ancient China, F/M, Genderbending, Historical, Romance, fem!xiumin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 11:31:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7713328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luci_fer/pseuds/hakugin_yami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They was away from the capital for more than a year, fighting the barbarians out of the northern border, and he’s never been so tired in his entire life. They’ve ridden for four days to rush back to the capital as ordered by the Council, hastening their ride and feeling time slipping away under their horses hoofs: the Emperor life was hanging by a tread.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Empress

 

_“There was a field in my old town_

_Where in spring all flowers blossomed wide_

_We were chasing butterflies_

_Hand in hand 'til close of day_

_Your voice still echoes in my heart.”_

_Kathleen Battle - Lovers_

He stops his horse in the wide courtyard where the head of his platoon is already arrived. Trembling lanterns are dancing in the arcades around them, carried by young maidens and servants. He sees his father, General Lu, hurrying his steps on the stairs that will bring him at the Gate of Supreme Harmony, the first step to enter the Imperial Palace.

He dismounts from his horse and gets off his helmet, letting go a long relieved sigh.   
They was away from the capital for more than a year, fighting the barbarians out of the northern border, and he’s never been so tired in his entire life. They’ve ridden for four days to rush back to the capital as ordered by the Council, hastening their ride and feeling time slipping away under their horses hoofs: the Emperor life was hanging by a tread.

He entrusts his belongings to a servant and he quickly follows the stream of his father transit in the wide and dark womb of the palace.

He walks inside the venues and the labyrinthine corridors, fast, following the traces of his memories, when he was still a kid playing hide-and-seek with his cousins, flying away from the anger of their guardians when they skipped their lessons to peek in the concubines chambers.

Now they’ve grown up, he became an official like his father, and his cousin became His Highness, Emperor Yifan.

Everything is changed, their childhood is gone and their bond is deeply in danger, not only for the ghost of the death over Yifan’s head.

“The fever is killing him, Han” the smoothness of a soft and gentle voice stops his walk but, incidentally, makes his heart race faster.

He turns his head only to catch a glimpse of red with the corners of his eyes. It takes only a second but he recognises every single trait of the person in front of his eyes: the small frame of her shoulders, the silver reflections of the moon against her silky black hair, the strong and intense scent of jasmine and the pure and porcelain white of her skin.

Draped in a scarlet red robe, gold earrings and the faint ghost of red tint on her lips, she appears paler and weaker than ever.

“The fever is killing him and I don’t know what to do, Han”

He finds his voice - lost somewhere deep in his throat - and cautious words to approach the most painful ghost of his childhood.

“How are you? How are you feeling?” there are traces of anxiousness in his voice but not in the steps he makes to reach her.

“My health is not in danger anymore, I’m fully recovered now”  
He makes a step closer.

“What about Zhong Ren?”

She looks directly in his eyes and Lu Han feels like his world is upside-out once again. But the feeling is familiar, since it always been that way when it comes to her.

Since the very first time their eyes met, his world had started to change and twist like a whirlpool of colors, sounds and perfumes that left him breathless and completely unable to recover.

They were nine years old when they first met, in a cold morning of April, with snow that covered the gardens and the roofs of the palace.

A delegation from the Joseon arrived at the first ray of dawn, carrying tributes and small court of maidens and tutors to sustain the education and growth of a new Imperial Princess. The Emperor Hangen choose the first daughter of the Joseon’s King Heechul as his son betrothed, a sign of respect towards his loyal friend.

As soon as he woke up, even before running to his cousins chamber, Royal Prince Lu Han followed the maiden outside his room and sneaked inside the concubines chambers. They didn’t scold him, because he was still too young to do something improper, instead they cuddled him and let him peek from the curtains. As he saw the princess, he pouted: “She’s a fatty squirrel, her face is like a baozi!”  
Countless laughs broke in the corridors and as he felt proud of himself to have made all the concubines laugh. The small princess covered her eyes with the sleeves of her dress and started to cry, ashamed.

Yifan too didn’t like his betrothed, grumbling with his mother that he didn’t want to marry a squirrel. The Empress admonished them to be nice with the young princess and not to judge  someone so easily only for their likes.

“Maybe one day you will be truly sorry for this.”  
And never before words were so prophetic.

The day arrived six years later, after a whole summer spent in the south with the army, bounding, fighting and learning the art of the war.

The day after their return to the palace, Lu Han wondered in the gardens to cool his body from the hotness of the afternoon. As he walked through the stoned path surrounded by the ponds, picking up hydrangeas and softly humming a song he had just listened in the kitchens, Lu Han found a flower he'd never seen before.

A stranger flower, with long black petals of hair coiffed with golden hairpins, soft, small and plumped lips and long eyelashes framing cat-like eyes.

He stood with wide eyes, the hydrangea flowers still in his hands while the young girl slightly turned her head to look in his eyes.

"Prince Lu Han!" the maidens bowed to him, calling out his name.

The unknown flower, however, didn't bowed to him nor she gave him any kind of attention with the exception of that glance. She graciously turned her head and walked away following the stoned path back to the main pavilion.

Lu Han couldn't restrain himself from following her with his eyes, and his hands were still slightly shaking when he ran back to find Yifan and Yixing.

"Why are you already back here? The gardens were boring?" asked Yifan, looking intently at the chessboard.

"I think I saw someone..." he started but Yixing, Yifan's younger brother, took the flowers from his hands.

"For me? Such a nice present, Han!" and the younger started to laugh.

Lu Han stepped near Yixing, lowered himself and took off the flowers from the younger's hands. He walked off the room and he asked every single maiden where the Joseon's princess chambers were.

He left the flowers outside the balcony and waited, hidden in the garden until he saw a pretty pale hand reaching out for the flowers and then disappearing behind the curtains.

The memory of that beautiful round face haunted his dreams for two weeks, the depth of those eyes tormented him everytime he closed his owns.

Two weeks trying to hide his feelings from everyone and then, the Emperor's birthday came along with the chance to see her again.

The celebrations were majestic. Golden lanterns were placed in the gardens, a great banquet was held in His Highness honor and every noble or counselors was invited. Lu Han found himself eager at the possibility to see her and his wish was fulfilled by the Gods.

But when she walked in, Lu Han wasn’t the only one whose attention was stolen by her presence: everyone in the hall turned to see her as she walked right in front of His Highness’ seat, her small and voluptuous body dressed in a bright blue vest.

She bowed deeply to the Emperor, her earrings jingled as she lowered her head, waiting for the Emperor to speak.

When he allowed her to, she rose her head and she wished him all fortunes and good health in perfect manners, as if she never had been a foreign princess.

The Emperor smiled and thanked her, asking her to sit by his side. The Empress, Yifan and Yixing’s mother, died the year before and only the concubines were allowed to sit next to the Emperor, but he called her gently by her name, Minseok, and he spent the dinner talking with her like she was his most cherished daughter.

Lu Han never stopped himself from calling her with that name, "Minseok", even after she married Yifan and became Empress Xiumin.

She never stopped calling him "Han", nor she stopped from smiling lovingly when he secretly gave her flowers from the gardens.

They never refrain themselves from playing chess together or walking in the gardens when Yifan was too busy to pay her a visit, or secretly sending messages to each others.

They never stopped, not even when it was too obvious that they went too far from being only good friends. They weren't allowed to be, in the first place.

But when Yixing approached Lu Han in a corridor to warn him and beg him to stop pursuing this friendship with the future Empress, or eventually, some gossip would reach Yifan's ear, Lu Han knew it was simply too late to stop.

When they met in that same lazy summer evening, when she smiled, watching him as he covered the distance between them, it was already too late.

The way he kissed her was desperate and didn't allowed her to defend herself from it.

But soon, Lu Han found out that Minseok didn't want to defend herself from that kiss, nor she wanted to defend herself from him.

And that night they consumed themselves with love and they found happiness in each other's heart.

While Yifan was busy following his father and the politics, Lu Han and Minseok were busy tracing mysterious paths on each other's skin.

Lu Han loved to kiss every mole of Minseok's white skin and she loved tickling his neck with the tip of her hair.

They whispered "I love you" after every kiss and muffled each other's name when their lust reached its highest.

One year living in the shadow, stealing glances and kisses in the darkness of the alleys. One day, in the beautiful light of the dawn, Lu Han found two branches of azalea outside the balcony of his room, and a small note knotted onto one of the branches.

"I've dreamt of a tiger napping surrounded by blue hydrangeas"

He cried, hot tears streamed down his beautiful face as he pressed the flowers against his chest. He was overwhelmed with happiness, joy and love as he faced himself with the news. He never doubted it, not even once, that it was his.

But he couldn't enjoy that moment, because numerous voices were bruising outside, in the corridors, steps slowly increasing their speed, and as soon as he wiped away his tears, someone asked to enter his room and after he hid the flowers, Yixing entered with a grave expression in his eyes.

"Father is dead."

The realization hit Lu Han like a summer storm, violent and inexorable. He walked outside his room following Yixing, barely noticing the coming and going of servants and the sparks of electricity in the atmosphere. As soon as his tears dried, in the chamber of the Emperor, his eyes started to damp again while he bids his farewells to his uncle, Emperor Hangen.

They all leaved the chamber when Yifan and Minseok arrived. Yifan knelt down, grasping his father’s hand and Minseok knelt down too, and endless tears ran down her eyes. Yifan gently wiped those tears away and looked in her eyes.

"He loved you more than his daughters, Minseok".

And she started to cry again, lowering her head with guilt as she whispered "I loved him too, like my own father".

Before the funerals, Yifan was crowned Emperor Yifan and Minseok was crowned Empress Xiumin in a solemn ceremony.

The new Emperor bade his farewells to the previous one and the nation greeted him with joy and expectations.

From that night, Minseok and her court moved to the Hall of Earthly Peace and from that moment, approaching her became nearly impossible.   
Lu Han was still holding her message in his clenched fist as he watched the procession of maidens locking every doors.

The news of the Empress’ pregnancy didn't long in coming and the entire court was in stir to guess if it was a prince or a princess.

Minseok didn't share her dream with nobody but Lu Han knew it was a prince and he known it was his son and not Yifan's.

He paid her visits when Yifan wasn't around her, bringing flowers and her favourite tea and they never kissed or touched each other, acting like their time together was only a beautiful dream. Only once, when they were alone, Minseok grabbed his hand and gently pressed it against her tummy. Lu Han felt a kick under the skin and looked at her with wide eyes.

She smiled so brightly that Lu Han felt like crying with joy.

When the baby was born, they named him Zhong Ren and Yifan became the happiest man in the world.

He never felt too attached to Minseok when they were young but after their marriage, he found himself loving her beauty, her elegance and her intelligence. That's why he started to love her way more than before once the prince was born. He never forgot to pay her visits and spent most of his time with her and the prince. That was when Lu Han's father ordered him to become a warrior and a counselor for his cousin's sake.

He wasn't able to spend much time in the palace, adjusting his life with the army. But every time he was able to, he paid Minseok a visit, always with flowers in his hands.

It was then, during one of those visits that they started to be lovers once again. It was as as when she cried her heart out, begging him to not forget their love like it never existed, because her heart was still full of sentiments for him and she refuted to let those feelings go.

He smiled at her and cupped her face with his hands, sharing a long awaited kiss. They made love as the prince quietly slept in his cradle.

The months passed and he stole every minute he could to secretly see her.

Until one day, when he left his horse in the courtyard, a servant approached him telling him that His Highness the Emperor was waiting for him.

He hurried his steps to the Hall of Heavenly Peace where Yifan was waiting.

They greeted each other like always, sharing smiles and friendly words until Yifan suddenly change his mood.

"Tell me, cousin, when was the last time we talked like this?"

Lu Han frowned a bit, unable to answer.

"It's been a long time, if my memory doesn't fail me" he continued, slowly walking around a table full of books and parchments, "but they've told me that you regularly visits Minseok's chambers".

Lu Han froze, unable to speak.

Yifan didn't say anything for a while, until he broke the silence with one order.

"Tomorrow morning, you and uncle Lu will move north with your troops and you'll be in charge of repelling the barbarians outside our boundaries."

He knew what it meant. Stay outside the court for maybe one, two years and probably die in the attempt to protect the north barriers.

Yifan knew, now he was sure about it. He knew that he and Minseok were lovers and that order was his punishment for stepping too close to his belongings.

Lu Han bowed and thanked him for giving he and his father this honor. He excused himself and walked towards the exit. When he was still lingering at the door, Yifan asked him "Are you planning on bid her goodbye? Rethink your priorities, Han".

He didn't look back as he marched out of the palace, ordering a servant to bring him his horse. He didn't bid her goodbye, nor at his son, nor at Yixing. He run out of their life without a single moment of doubt.

Until now, when he finds himself trapped in the haze of her gaze once again.

Minseok’s eyes had this power, over him: she was able to pierce inside his soul with just one look, she was able to see right through him like he was naked in front of the Gods with all his life completely uncovered. Defenseless.

“Zhong Ren’s life was never in danger” she slowly cut the distance between them, brushing her forehead against his shoulder “but Shi Xun’s life was.”

Lu Han’s heart miss a beat, unsure whether for the sudden closeness of her body or for the implicit meaning of her statement.

He had fought at the ends of their kingdom for almost 2 years and the news of a new born prince certainly wasn’t mentioned in the letters from the court. Lu Han’s hands starts shaking a little at the image of Minseok and Yifan together, at the idea of what he might have done to her after he discovered their love affair.

He puts his hands on her shoulder, lightly pressing his fingers into her skin. She is so thin, now, delicate like a flower shaken by the wind.

“Did he hurt you? Did he do anything to you or Zhong Ren?” he asks with worry, looking desperately in her eyes.

She shakes her head and removes his hands from her shoulders.

“Yifan didn’t do anything to me or to Zhong Ren, he never suspected once he wasn’t his legitimate son.” her look is dignified, shaken only by the intense feelings that her heart starts to unleash. She missed him, she missed his voice, his eyes, the little scar that runs under his lower lip. She missed the way he looked at her, with love, with desire and longing.

Everything about Lu Han was so suddenly ripped off from her life, leaving a hole that nothing and no one was able to fill. Not the love of her husband, not even the love of her children.

She told herself that she wouldn’t be able to see him again and that was the only thing that could convinced her to stop thinking about him.

The only reminders of her lost lover were the sparkles in Zhong Ren’s eyes and the beautiful features of Shi Xun’s face.

But now Lu Han was in front of her, with his voice, his eyes, with his little scar that runs under his lower lip and he’s looking in her eyes, with a lover’s fury and the absurd idea of having any rights to be upset.   
“And to you? Did he forced himself with you? Did he hurt you?” the more he talks, the more the anger and the pain overwhelm Minseok.

She straighten her posture and harden her look, clenching her fists covered by the sleeves of her dress.

“I already answered this question, I’m not repeating myself, Captain Lu.”

Lu Han’s breath stops at the words, blinking his eyes like a lost child. Right there, in front of his eyes, the sweet and warm Minseok he had knew turned out in someone he barely recognises. She’s not a princess anymore, he says to himself, she’s a queen now.

Her eyes are deeper than the night and full of dignity, almost regal, something that she had achieved being the consort of Yifan, being someone who the Emperor respected and loved, someone whose name is whispered with amazement from anyone, among the court.

She’s there, in front of him, looking directly in his eyes like she always did, but there’s something different in her and Lu Han starts to understand it, now.

She shakes her head making her earrings tings, turning her back at him. Slowly walking away, engulfed in the darkness of the aisle.

“What kind of sorcery is this, Minseok? Who did he transformed you in?”

She stops, and the echo of her steps devours the silence of the night.

“How could you?” her voice is low and inaudible and Lu Han struggles to catch it.

“How could you say that to me?” she turns again to face him, her features contorted in a grimace of pain “How could you even say my name after all this time? After leaving me and your son without saying a word? How dare you, Lu Han?!”

She clearly doesn’t mind to wake up the entire palace, as her voice cracked down in a scream full of desperation. The tears start falling from her eyes, streaming down her face like drops of rain.

“I couldn’t help it. It was your husband’s order” Lu Han walks to her but she turn him down, refusing to let him touch her.

“You couldn’t? You couldn’t even write me? Two years without a word and I thought you were dead! Don’t touch me, don’t you dare!”

“Minseok, please, I thought Yifan could hurt you if I kept asking for you…”

“Yifan loves me more than you ever did and he loves your sons more than you will be able to.”

They both remains silent as the blow overwhelm them.

Minseok wipes away her tears with the back of her hands, leaving traces of her rouge while doing it. She waits for some reply but Lu Han remains silent, looking away.

“Don’t ever come after me again. If you still have a bit of affection left for me, don’t come ever again. You’ve ruined everything. You’ve ruined me.” she whispers in the thick air of that summer night.

She takes her leave, walking on the garden’s gallery to escape that dream turned into a nightmare. She starts crying again, with her heart torn in desperation.

Than, suddenly, she feels the warmth of two hands pulling her back in a dark corridor, behind a curtain.

Before she can say anything, her lips are sealed with a kiss.

Lu Han’s hands cup her face gently, his eyes shut like a boy who kisses for the first time. He doesn’t force it but doesn’t let her escape from it.

Minseok’s hands beat his chest to make him withdraw but Lu Han doesn’t move away, his lips pressed against hers, his heart racing like a wild horse.

When she finds a way to part from that kiss, she slaps his face and flinches towards a pillar. Lu Han eyes follow her in the dim light that penetrates from the outside.

“I love you, Minseok.”

“Don’t say it-”

“I love you, and I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you but I hadn’t any choice and I missed you everyday”

She covers her face with the sleeves of her dress and erupts in a desperate weeping. Lu Han moves and embraces her in his arms, tightly.  
He knows that words can’t express what he’s feeling there, under the pale light of the moon, in the darkness of that palace, pressed against her comforting warmth. If there was a place where he should have always been, it was there.   
He kisses her head, in devotion, speaking gently with a soothing tone.   
“Flowers don’t bloom in the north, not a single flower can be seen over the Walls. There’s no spring there, only the wind blowing from the east, raging and crying like a wolf” he caresses her head, softly, playing gently with her hairpins.

“The first time we passed the borders, only half of us survived. When we retreated I was so scared that I forgot to report the mission’s status to my father. He was furious but I could see he was glad I was still alive.” he pauses, feeling her hands clenching over the breastplates of his armor.  
“It was the first time I saw so many men die and I thought that it was my fault and that it was my duty to die with them.”   
Minseok lifts her head, searching for his eyes with a desperate and frustrated frown.

He lower his eyes to look in hers.

“But what if I died there, alone outside the walls, away from here, from this place - from you? That night, I remember, I was paralyzed in my sack but not because I was scared by the thought of death nor because I was afraid at the idea of not seeing you again” he cups her face, so slowly he could feel all his bones and nerves and tendons burn from the anticipation of that touch.

Minseok’s lips tremble as she gets up on tiptoes, captivated by his voice and by the way he looks at her.   
“I thought for the first time in months that I haven’t had the chance to see you a last time. I wasn’t able to engrave in my memory your smile, your eyes, the way you lift your eyebrows when you’re astonished nor your voice when you sing, shyly, because you think your voice is not good enough but you’re wrong, Minseok. You’re all wrong and - I swear - you are if you think I didn’t missed you.”   
His voice is low and firm and yet he can feel that something is betraying him, maybe the fear or the agitation in his heart. He knows that she can hear that flutter in his voice, he knows she can feel it.

“You’re wrong when you say I don’t love you, you know how wrong you are. Because I’m here and you can tear me open and see with your own eyes that my heart is yours. Do it, Minseok, I’m not afraid to lose this battle.”  
He moves a step back unleashing the belt of his sword to offer it to her.

“What are you doing?”   
“I said you can rip me open, if you want. I’m not stepping back, if this is the only way for you to trust me, I’ll let you do it.”   
She looks at the sword and shakes her head.   
“Take it. Take this sword or take my words, my love and everything I can give you, even if it’s little.”   
Lu Han speaks with a strong voice, commanding like a fearless warrior. “He’s not a prince anymore” she thinks when she stretches out her hands to receive the weapon.   
The sword is heavy and she can barely hold it up. How many men must have cut? How many wounds has inflicted?

“This sword-” she asks suddenly “has protected your life?”  
He nods silently, watching Minseok’s movements - her eyes captivated by the object, observant and curious like a cat.

“I can’t use this sword to hurt you, then.”  
“Why?”   
Minseok give the sword back to him. He rests his hands over hers.   
“Because she brought you back to me alive. Thanks to her I can’t mourn your death.”   
Lu Han snatches the weapon from her hands, dropping it to the ground. The sound rings out in all the corridors.

“It was my love for you who brought me back, Minseok.” he smiles a little, moving closer and closer to her.

She looks at him with all her emotions painted on her face.

“Why are you always like this, Lu Han? Without ever leave me the last word, without ever leave me peace-” she couldn’t finish because Lu Han has to win this battle once again, destroying every wall she built, erasing all the pain in one slash of sword - with all his love, with all himself.  
They kiss and everything becomes bright, as if the sun had suddenly broke into the night, slashing away everything around them. The world doesn’t exist anymore, they’re alone and they are together and the rest doesn’t matter. It never mattered anyways.

He feels his heart bursting into a firework when she breathes his name between the kisses. He feels his own hands shaking when she starts to untie all the knots in his armor, impatient like Spring under March’s snow.

He smiles when she whines, offended with his clothes because they refuse to cooperate, and he smiles a little more when he helps her. He forgets how to breath when she stares at his body, caressing all the ghosts of his wounds. Scars she had never seen before, scars she scans with care. He can read a hundred questions in her eyes, a hundred fears he wants to dispel.

He takes her hands and brings them to his lips, kissing every finger, looking at her to silently answer all her questions.  
Not now, not here.   
Let me touch you, let me love you.   
She nods and lets him kiss her forearms, the sensitive skin of the inside of her elbow and more on. She lets him uncover her skin and kiss away all her pain.

He pushes her against the pillar and she shivers from head to toes when he starts to undress her. His hands are rough and hot against her skin, making her body melts in fluster.

She feels like the tip of a brush dipped in a golden pigment, ready to write words she once knew but then lost in a dream. Words never forgotten but distant.  
And she lets Lu Han teach her how to write those words again, she gives herself to him like she once did and he patiently guides her.

He guides her lips, her arms, her mouth and hands and he lets her grow hungrier and more eager. Minseok blooms for him like the Spring, spreading his thighs and her body for him. He savors all she offers like a thirsty vagabond at a fount. He fills her up, he pushes himself inside her with all the love he restrained in the past two years. He never closes his eyes because he doesn’t want to make the same mistake he did when he had to leave her. Lu Han wants to impress every little piece of Minseok inside his mind and against his body. Every caress, every movement she makes against his body, every moans and every whisper. He wants to engrave the way she bites her lips when he thrusts inside her, the restlessness of her hands that stroke his hair and the desperation of her pleasure.  
He closes his eyes only when he can’t contain his pleasure and when he’s overwhelmed by it, he embraces her tightly, almost screaming her name.   
She clings herself against him, letting him rest his head against her shoulder. They both take their time to catch their breath, silently rocking against each other.   
“I love you, Han” she whispers, inhaling his scent to calm herself.   
He tightens his grip around her body, reassured and glad of her words.

“Can you forgive me?” he asks, like a guilty child.   
Minseok can’t contain her smile while she cuddles him like she always does with her children.

“Didn’t I already forgive you, Captain Lu?” she teases him, kissing his jaw.

Lu Han finds the strength to separate a little from her, what it takes to look directly in her eyes.

“I won’t leave you alone again, I don’t care what will happen.”

She lowers her eyes, unsure.

“We don’t know what will happen, I’m well aware of my responsibilities-” she starts, covering Lu Han’s mouth with her fingers when he tries to speak “but I don’t want you to leave me. I will not allow you to go away from me. You have to stay, I need you and I will do whatever it takes to let you stay. I swear to you.”   
Lu Han can only stare at her, savouring the beauty of her eyes as he nods, defeated by her confidence.

“Go to him, Han. Yifan needs you, I know he missed you during these years.”  
“You think that he will forgive me?” he asks knowing the answer already.

“You think you would forgive yourself, if you were in his place?”  
He doesn’t, how can he? But he can understand and he knows Yifan too can understand that you can’t tell your heart to stop beating nor you can ask yourself to stop loving someone so deeply.

He had tried, during this years, but he couldn’t stop loving Minseok. He knows he will never be able to stop.

Lu Han kisses her one more time, not ready to leave her side yet but he forces himself to step away. Every step is heavier than the one before, his heart feels like a stone every meter he puts between Minseok and himself.  
When he turns his head to watch her, she’s still there with her back against the pillar, following his movements with her eyes.

He doesn’t care if Yifan still hates him, he will stay by his side and by Minseok’s for the rest of his life.

So many years ago, she had brought the Spring inside that Palace, inside Lu Han’s heart and in Yifan’s life too. He remembers the day he saw a beautiful flower in the gardens - a flower he never saw before that day - blooming mercilessly over the rest of the flora. A flower so beautiful he couldn’t refrain himself from took it. Since that day, his heart is always restless yet he can’t stop wishing himself to pick it up again in all his next lives.

**Author's Note:**

> YAY, FINALLY FINISHED!!!  
> Congratulations, you lose several minutes of your life reading this horrible story and now you're probably thinking "wth is this S***?!" and I totally empathize with you :D  
> But REALLY REALLY REALLY - like, REALLY - thanks for reading this fic, it was an infinite pain for me since my writing skills are really poor (like my english, I bet you noticed ;D) but, yeah, here we are!  
> I love XIUHAN, I love Minseok (and yes, I'm a fan of genderbend) and I love Lu Han. I love them together. Like bread and Nutella.  
> Pizza and basil.  
> Not one without the other.  
> Did you guess who are Minseok and Lu Han children? You didn't? :D  
> Let me know~  
> Thanks again for your attention ♥


End file.
